Arthur Jay Finkelstein (May 18, 1945 – August 18, 2017) was a
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
state-based
Republican Party (GOP) consultant who worked for
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
and
right-wing
Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...
candidates in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
,
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
,
Central Europe
Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the area' ...
, and
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...
over four decades.
With his brother, Ronald, Finkelstein ran a political consulting and survey-research firm based in
Irvington, New York
Irvington, sometimes known as Irvington-on-Hudson,Staff (ndg"The Irvington Gazette (Irvington-On-Hudson, N.Y.) 1907-1969"Library of Congress is a suburban village in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is loca ...
. His specialties were polling, strategy, message, media, ad placement, and advising on general campaign management.
Early life and education
Finkelstein grew up in a lower-middle-class
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
family, living in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
's
East New York
East New York is a residential neighborhood in the eastern section of the borough of Brooklyn in New York City, United States. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise, are roughly the Cemetery Belt and the Queens borough lin ...
section until age 11, then in
Levittown, New York
Levittown is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York. It is located halfway between the villages of Hempstead and Farmingdale. As of the 2010 census, the CDP had a tota ...
, and later
Queens
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
. He and his two brothers attended local public schools; Finkelstein ultimately graduated from
Forest Hills High School. Their parents were immigrants from Eastern Europe,
and the father worked as a cabdriver
and did various jobs in the garment trade. While a student at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, Finkelstein interviewed and helped produce radio programs for author/philosopher
Ayn Rand
Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum;, . Most sources transliterate her given name as either ''Alisa'' or ''Alissa''. , 1905 – March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and p ...
,
and was a volunteer at the New York headquarters of the
Draft Goldwater Committee The Draft Goldwater Committee was the organization primarily responsible for engineering the nomination of Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater for President of the United States on the 1964 Republican Party ticket.
Beginnings
The effort to draft Goldw ...
in 1963–64 (the famous "Suite 3505").
He eventually earned a bachelor's degree in
economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...
and
political science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...
from
Queens College
Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body representing more than 170 ...
in 1967.
[Schudel, Matt]
"Arthur Finkelstein, quietly influential GOP campaign mastermind, dies at 72"
''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', August 19, 2017.
Career
1968–76: Buckley, Nixon, Helms, and Reagan
In 1968, Finkelstein did behind-the-scenes election analysis for
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...
, part of the network's team working under former Census director
Richard M. Scammon
Richard Montgomery Scammon (July 17, 1915 – April 27, 2001) was an American author, political scientist and elections scholar. He served as Director of the U.S. Bureau of the Census from 1961 to 1965. Afterwards, he worked for decades direc ...
and exit-polling pioneer Irwin A. "Bud" Lewis.
In 1969–70, he worked as a computer programmer in the Data Processing department of the
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed c ...
at its offices on
11 Wall Street in lower Manhattan. During this period, he was a familiar face in
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
, where he often argued politics from a street-corner soapbox.
In his spare time, he aided State Senator
John Marchi John Marchi may refer to:
* John J. Marchi
John Joseph Marchi (May 20, 1921 – April 25, 2009) was an American attorney and jurist who represented Staten Island in the New York State Senate for 50 years. Marchi (pronounced MAR-key), a Republic ...
in his unsuccessful Republican-Conservative campaign for Mayor of New York City in 1969.
[Lynn, Frank, "A Political Pollster for Conservatives", ''The New York Times'', December 16, 1979.]
F. Clifton White, mastermind of the
Draft Goldwater Committee The Draft Goldwater Committee was the organization primarily responsible for engineering the nomination of Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater for President of the United States on the 1964 Republican Party ticket.
Beginnings
The effort to draft Goldw ...
, was Finkelstein's political patron and consulting partner in the early 1970s in the firm, DirAction Services. The young pollster's first electoral success came at age 25 in 1970, with the independent Conservative campaign of
James L. Buckley for senator from New York. This was one of several New York statewide contests where he was able to maneuver his clients to victory in three-way scenarios. Buckley won a plurality upset victory over GOP incumbent
Charles Goodell
Charles Ellsworth Goodell Jr. (March 16, 1926January 21, 1987) was an American politician who represented New York (state), New York in the United States House of Representatives from 1959 to 1968 and the United States Senate from 1968 to 19 ...
and favored Democrat
Richard Ottinger
Richard Lawrence Ottinger (born January 27, 1929) is an American legal educator and politician from New York. A Democrat, he served in the United States House of Representatives for eight terms, from 1965 to 1971 and from 1975 to 1985.
Early ye ...
. Of that election night, Buckley later wrote, "By 10 pm, ... Finkelstein (my volunteer analyst who called the final results within one-tenth of one percent based on a Sunday-night telephone survey) assured me that I had won." Finkelstein encapsulated Buckley's message in the catchphrase, "Isn't it about time we had a Senator?"
Finkelstein's work in New York led to his serving in 1971-72 as one of several pollsters for President
Richard M. Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was t ...
's
re-election campaign developing sophisticated
demographic
Demography () is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings.
Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as edu ...
analysis.
The 1972 election also saw the first of his three victorious campaigns to elect
Jesse Helms
Jesse Alexander Helms Jr. (October 18, 1921 – July 4, 2008) was an American politician. A leader in the conservative movement, he served as a senator from North Carolina from 1973 to 2003. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee ...
as U.S. senator from North Carolina.
After the election, Finkelstein worked with Helms political aides
Tom Ellis and
Carter Wrenn to establish a permanent conservative organization, the
National Congressional Club
The National Congressional Club (NCC) was a political action committee formed by Tom Ellis in 1973 and controlled by Jesse Helms, who served as a Republican Senator from North Carolina from 1973 to 2003. The NCC was originally established as the ...
, which lasted until 1995.
[Christensen, Rob, ''Raleigh News & Observer'', September 8, 2017, "He was the man behind the curtain in NC politics"]
Finkelstein and White went their separate ways in the mid-1970s,
and he founded his own firm, Arthur J. Finkelstein & Associates (often later shortened to AJF & Associates).
In the 1976 presidential primaries, White supported
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...
, while Finkelstein worked for
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
's insurgent campaign.
He helped Helms's Congressional Club turn around the faltering Reagan effort with a victory in the April North Carolina primary.
His work continued in the subsequent Texas primary. "Finkelstein had been a key figure in 1976, when he helped orchestrate Reagan's campaign-saving comeback in North Carolina" which was crucial in Reagan's further political advancement.
At Finkelstein's urging, Reagan made a major issue of the impending
Panama Canal Treaties
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...
, which
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...
was negotiating and which infuriated conservative voters. (This proved to be Reagan's signature issue throughout the late 1970s.) As
Jules Witcover
Jules Joseph Witcover (born July 16, 1927) is an American journalist, author, and columnist.
Biography
Witcover is a veteran newspaperman of 50 years' standing, having written for ''The Baltimore Sun'', the now-defunct ''Washington Star'', the '' ...
later reported, "Tens of thousands of
Wallace
Wallace may refer to:
People
* Clan Wallace in Scotland
* Wallace (given name)
* Wallace (surname)
* Wallace (footballer, born 1986), full name Wallace Fernando Pereira, Brazilian football left-back
* Wallace (footballer, born 1987), full name ...
voters were gradually cut adrift during his slide
n the primaries... and Reagan media man Arthur Finkelstein recruited a Wallaceite from Fort Worth to radio and television spots for Reagan ... It was dynamite." The
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
's Mike Robinson wrote Finkelstein was "viewed by many as instrumental in Gov. Reagan's 1976 primary successes in North Carolina and Texas."
1975–80: NCPAC, Senate, and Reagan
Passage of the post-Watergate
Federal Election Campaign Act
The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (FECA, , ''et seq.'') is the primary United States federal law regulating political campaign fundraising and spending. The law originally focused on creating limits for campaign spending on communicatio ...
(FECA) amendments, and the subsequent 1976 Supreme Court decision in
Buckley v. Valeo
''Buckley v. Valeo'', 424 U.S. 1 (1976), was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court on campaign finance. A majority of justices held that, as provided by section 608 of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, limits on election expenditu ...
, drastically altered the rules by which Presidential and Congressional contests were waged. Finkelstein was among the first to sense an opportunity, and pioneered the concept and execution of
independent expenditure
An independent expenditure, in elections in the United States, is a political campaign communication that Issue advocacy ads, expressly advocates for the election or defeat of a clearly identified candidate that is not made in cooperation, consulta ...
campaigns, which would operate as a third force in an election beyond the control of candidate or party officials.
Beginning in 1975, Finkelstein was the chief strategist behind the most successful IE operation of this period, the
National Conservative Political Action Committee The National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC; pronounced "nick-pack"), based in Alexandria, Virginia, was a New Right political action committee in the United States that was a major contributor to the ascendancy of conservative Repu ...
(NCPAC). Its Executive Director was Finkelstein protégé
Terry Dolan. In 1981 New Right activist
Richard Viguerie
Richard Art Viguerie (; born September 23, 1933) is an American conservative figure, pioneer of political direct mail and writer on politics. He is the current chairman of ConservativeHQ.com.
Life and career
Viguerie was born in Golden Acres, T ...
wrote, "NCPAC relies heavily on research and polling, a reflection of one of its founders, conservative pollster Arthur Finkelstein."
In 1978, NCPAC was instrumental in the defeat of Democrats
Dick Clark
Richard Wagstaff Clark (November 30, 1929April 18, 2012) was an American radio and television personality, television producer and film actor, as well as a cultural icon who remains best known for hosting ''American Bandstand'' from 1956 to 198 ...
in Iowa and
Thomas J. McIntyre in New Hampshire. Both liberal senators were replaced by committed conservatives. NCPAC ran hard-hitting ads for television, radio and newspapers, crafted by Finkelstein. A central idea behind the strategy was to expose the liberal words and actions in Washington of elected officials, usually senators, whose moderate or conservative public image at home was at odds with their actual voting record.
NCPAC hit its peak in 1980, operating IEs in six states, its ads and organizing efforts helping to topple liberal Democrats in Iowa (
John Culver
John Chester Culver (August 8, 1932 – December 26, 2018) was an American politician, writer and lawyer who was elected to both the United States House of Representatives (1965–1975) and United States Senate (1975–1981) from Iowa. A memb ...
), Indiana (
Birch Bayh
Birch Evans Bayh Jr. (; January 22, 1928 – March 14, 2019) was an American Democratic Party politician who served as U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1963 to 1981. He was first elected to office in 1954, when he won election to the Indiana ...
), Idaho (
Frank Church
Frank Forrester Church III (July 25, 1924 – April 7, 1984) was an Americans, American politician and lawyer. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Idah ...
) and South Dakota (
George McGovern
George Stanley McGovern (July 19, 1922 – October 21, 2012) was an American historian and South Dakota politician who was a U.S. representative and three-term U.S. senator, and the Democratic Party presidential nominee in the 1972 pres ...
). Less well-known were NCPAC's TV ads in the presidential contest, both negative (one featuring
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...
in a 1976 debate, another with
Edward Kennedy
Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic ...
shouting "And no more Jimmy Carter!") and positive (footage of
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
speaking on values); Finkelstein concentrated these ad buys in closely contested Southern states (e.g., Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama), all of which switched from Carter to Reagan in 1980.
Finkelstein believed in the usefulness of third forces to help conservatives win elections, but not a conservative third party (a much-discussed option in the mid-1970s). At a February 1977 conference, he told activists, "The development of a third party may very well hurt conservative options in the future by diluting them," warning that traditional and emotional ties to party labels would keep many conservatives in their present parties. He said the Watergate scandal had cost the GOP the one clear advantage it had over the Democrats – the perception by voters that it was the more honest of the two parties. Nevertheless, he counseled against third-party option, saying this would succeed only in drawing conservatives out of both parties, creating a weak satellite party and leaving the major parties more liberal.
Besides NCPAC, Finkelstein found particular success during this period in guiding individual Senate and House campaigns. Reagan backer and political unknown
Orrin Hatch
Orrin Grant Hatch (March 22, 1934 – April 23, 2022) was an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Utah from 1977 to 2019. Hatch's 42-year Senate tenure made him the longest-serving Republican U.S. senator ...
won a resounding 56% victory in Utah in 1976 against a three-term Democratic incumbent. In 1978, he was consultant to the successful re-election campaigns of
Jesse Helms
Jesse Alexander Helms Jr. (October 18, 1921 – July 4, 2008) was an American politician. A leader in the conservative movement, he served as a senator from North Carolina from 1973 to 2003. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee ...
in North Carolina and
Strom Thurmond
James Strom Thurmond Sr. (December 5, 1902June 26, 2003) was an American politician who represented South Carolina in the United States Senate from 1954 to 2003. Prior to his 48 years as a senator, he served as the 103rd governor of South Caro ...
in South Carolina — the latter being Thurmond's last seriously contested race (he served until 2002, age 100). That same year, Finkelstein shepherded
Carroll Campbell
Carroll Ashmore Campbell Jr. (July 24, 1940December 7, 2005), was an American Republican Party politician who served as the List of governors of South Carolina, 112th governor of South Carolina from 1987 to 1995. Prior to this, he served as ...
to his first win in South Carolina's Greenville-area 4th Congressional District.
After a brief interlude early in 1979 as adviser to conservative Congressman
Phil Crane
Philip Miller Crane (November 3, 1930 – November 8, 2014) was an American politician. He was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 2005, representing the 8th District of Illinois in the northwestern su ...
, Finkelstein returned as one of the pollsters advising
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
's primary campaign. His services were also reportedly sought by the
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...
campaign.
In 1980, he engineered the improbable Senate victory of Long Island supervisor
Alfonse D'Amato
Alfonse Marcello D'Amato (born August 1, 1937) is an American politician born in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York. He served as United States Senator for New York between 1981 and 1999. He subsequently founded a lobbying firm, Park Strategies.
...
over incumbent
Jacob Javits
Jacob Koppel Javits ( ; May 18, 1904 – March 7, 1986) was an American lawyer and politician. During his time in politics, he represented the state of New York in both houses of the United States Congress. A member of the Republican Party, he a ...
, another three-way contest where the Democrat (Congresswoman
Liz Holtzman) was favored.
He advised the successful campaign of 31-year-old State Senator
Don Nickles
Donald Lee Nickles (born December 6, 1948) is an American politician and lobbyist who was a Republican United States Senator from Oklahoma from 1981 to 2005. He was considered both a fiscal and social conservative. After retiring from the Senat ...
for U.S. Senate from Oklahoma. Most unlikely was the victory (aided by
National Congressional Club
The National Congressional Club (NCC) was a political action committee formed by Tom Ellis in 1973 and controlled by Jesse Helms, who served as a Republican Senator from North Carolina from 1973 to 2003. The NCC was originally established as the ...
allies) of
John East
John East (died 1856) was a 19th-century Anglican clergyman and writer.
At Oxford he was a friend of William Henry Havergal.
He became:
* Rector of Croscombe, Somerset (some of his earlier writings were published in Evesham, Worcestershire, Eve ...
in the North Carolina Senate contest;
[Allen, Kenneth S., ''St. Petersburg Times'', April 11, 1988, "''Attack politics' specialist to lead Mack campaign"] East was a little-known professor who used a wheelchair, recruited for the race by
Jesse Helms
Jesse Alexander Helms Jr. (October 18, 1921 – July 4, 2008) was an American politician. A leader in the conservative movement, he served as a senator from North Carolina from 1973 to 2003. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee ...
and elected through the efforts of Ellis, Wrenn, Finkelstein and the Helms organization.
Besides Campbell, House winners included
Duncan Hunter in California and
Denny Smith
Dennis Alan "Denny" Smith (born January 19, 1938) is an American businessman and former United States congressman from the state of Oregon. A native of the state, he served in the Air Force before working in the airline industry and taking over t ...
in Oregon (both 1980), the latter toppling House
Ways and Means Committee chair
Al Ullman
Albert Conrad Ullman (March 9, 1914 – October 11, 1986) was an American politician in the Democratic Party who represented in the United States House of Representatives from 1957 to 1981. One of the most influential Oregonians ever to be ele ...
. Finkelstein also had his share of Senate losses, including two by previous client
James Buckley (1976, New York, and 1980, Connecticut), and with Avi Nelson (1978, Massachusetts). Finkelstein was also pollster-strategist for Maryland Congressman
Robert Bauman
Robert E. Bauman (born April 4, 1937) is an American lawyer and politician. He is a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland's 1st congressional district (1973–1981). Bauman was a prominent conservative advocate in the ...
, who narrowly lost his seat after he was charged in DC with homosexual solicitation, one month before the November election.
1980s
During the 1980 campaign Finkelstein was a Reagan pollster and had been "aboard the Reagan campaign" since mid-1979.
from the early primary days all the way through November. Having ridden (and driven) the Republican wave of 1977–80, he found the 1980s a period of consolidation, helping clients grow their base and win re-election.
In 1981, Finkelstein was one of four pollsters designated to do work on behalf of the Reagan White House, paid by the
Republican National Committee
The Republican National Committee (RNC) is a U.S. political committee that assists the Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican brand and political platform, as well as assisting in fu ...
. (The others were
Richard Wirthlin
Richard Bitner ("Dick") Wirthlin (March 15, 1931March 16, 2011) was a prominent American pollster, who is best known as Ronald Reagan's chief strategist, serving as his political consultant and pollster for twenty years, from 1968 through the end ...
,
Robert Teeter and Tully Plesser). ''
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...
'' reported in 1982 that "each of the President's top three advisers has his own numbers man: "Wirthlin became
Edwin Meese
Edwin Meese III (born December 2, 1931) is an American attorney, law professor, author and member of the Republican Party who served in official capacities within the Ronald Reagan's gubernatorial administration (1967–1974), the Reagan pres ...
's pollster, Teeter became
James Baker
James Addison Baker III (born April 28, 1930) is an American attorney, diplomat and statesman. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 10th White House Chief of Staff and 67th United States Secretary of the Treasury under President ...
's and now Finkelstein has become
Michael Deaver
Michael Keith Deaver (April 11, 1938 – August 18, 2007) was a member of President Ronald Reagan's White House staff serving as White House Deputy Chief of Staff under James Baker III and Donald Regan from January 1981 until May 1985.
Early li ...
's."
Throughout Reagan's first term and into the 1984 re-election campaign, Finkelstein advised Deaver, conducting polls and planning events and visuals (e.g. Reagan's trip to France for the 40th anniversary of
D-Day
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...
). As ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' reported: "For the White House, Finkelstein is more of an idea man than a pollster, specializing in media events such as the president's "spontaneous" drop-ins on disadvantaged individuals and institutions."
He also began dabbling in gubernatorial contests—in New Jersey (1981), for
Jim Wallwork
Staff Sergeant James Harley Wallwork DFM (21 October 1919 – 24 January 2013) was a British soldier and a member of the Glider Pilot Regiment who achieved notability as the pilot of the first Horsa glider to land at Pegasus Bridge in t ...
(defeated by
Tom Kean in the GOP primary); and in New York (1982), for
Paul Curran (defeated by
Lewis Lehrman
Lewis E. "Lew" Lehrman (born August 15, 1938, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) is an American investment banker, businessman, Republican Party (United States), Republican politician, economist, and historian who supports the ongoing study of America ...
for the nomination).
In 1982, Finkelstein client
Orrin Hatch
Orrin Grant Hatch (March 22, 1934 – April 23, 2022) was an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Utah from 1977 to 2019. Hatch's 42-year Senate tenure made him the longest-serving Republican U.S. senator ...
sailed to re-election in Utah, while in Florida, banker
Connie Mack III
Cornelius Alexander McGillicuddy III (born October 29, 1940), also known as Connie Mack III, is an American retired Republican politician. He served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Florida from 1983 to 1989 and th ...
won his first campaign for the House.
But his efforts on behalf of Democrat-turned-Republican Congressman
Eugene Atkinson
Eugene Vincent Atkinson (April 5, 1927 – August 4, 2016) was an American politician who, from 1979 to 1983, served two-terms as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.
Early life and career
Atkinson was born in the ...
of Pennsylvania ended in defeat, as did the Congressional campaign in Westchester County of John Fossel, chairman of Oppenheimer Funds.
That year, NCPAC (with Finkelstein as pollster-strategist) was successful in only one targeted race (helping to oust Democrat
Howard Cannon
Howard Walter Cannon (January 26, 1912 – March 5, 2002) was an American politician from Nevada. Elected to the first of four consecutive terms in 1958, he served in the United States Senate from 1959 to 1983. He was a member of the Democratic ...
in Nevada), failed in several others (e.g. Maryland), and thereafter declined in influence. The pitfalls of running IEs and campaigns at the same time were illustrated when NCPAC was sued for running ads in early 1982 against New York Sen.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Daniel Patrick Moynihan (March 16, 1927 – March 26, 2003) was an American politician, diplomat and sociologist. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented New York in the United States Senate from 1977 until 2001 and served as an ...
—around the same time as Finkelstein was working for GOP Senate candidate
Bruce Caputo
Bruce Faulkner Caputo (born August 7, 1943) is an American lawyer and politician from New York. He is most notable for his service as a member of the New York State Assembly (1973 to 1976) and the United States House of Representatives (1977 to 1 ...
.
In 1986, a federal court ruled against NCPAC, and ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' editorialized, "Both NCPAC and the Caputo campaign used the same pollster, Arthur Finkelstein. They could hardly be said to be independent unless the Caputo side of Mr. Finkelstein's brain refrained from communicating with the NCPAC side." (Finkelstein himself was not sued or charged; ironically, Caputo's campaign had imploded after revelations he'd lied about serving in the military, and Moynihan was never seriously challenged.) As late as 1987, Finkelstein was doing surveys for NCPAC (e.g. in New Mexico).
During the early 1980s, Finkelstein became involved in international polling, for groups such as Canada's
National Citizens Coalition
The National Citizens Coalition (NCC) is a Canadian conservative lobby group that was incorporated in 1975 by Colin M. Brown, a successful insurance agent who strongly opposed public health insurance—medicare. In response to what he perceiv ...
and (in 1986) the
Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (french: Parti progressiste-conservateur de l'Ontario), often shortened to the Ontario PC Party or simply the PCs, colloquially known as the Tories, is a centre-right political party in Ontario, Canada ...
after losing their majority in the
Ontario Legislature
The Legislative Assembly of Ontario (OLA, french: Assemblée législative de l'Ontario) is the legislative chamber of the Canadian province of Ontario. Its elected members are known as Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs). Bills passed by ...
following the 1985 elections.
The 1984 election cycle saw him involved in three pitched battles for the Senate, the most heralded being the challenge of Democratic Governor
Jim Hunt
James Baxter Hunt Jr. (born May 16, 1937) is an American politician and retired attorney who was the List of governors of North Carolina, 69th and 71st Governor of North Carolina (1977–1985, and 1993–2001). He is the longest-serving governo ...
to Helms in North Carolina. The Ellis-Wrenn-Finkelstein team used the permanent assets of the
National Congressional Club
The National Congressional Club (NCC) was a political action committee formed by Tom Ellis in 1973 and controlled by Jesse Helms, who served as a Republican Senator from North Carolina from 1973 to 2003. The NCC was originally established as the ...
to wage a three-year campaign to undermine Hunt,
including a groundbreaking opposition-research and advertising effort that redefined the popular governor as a tax-raising national Democrat.
Helms won with 52%, in what was then the most expensive Senate race in history. However, this was the last Helms campaign on which Finkelstein would serve as pollster. Before Helms' 1990 re-election campaign, Finkelstein told the North Carolina team he couldn't work for the Senator any more. According to Carter Wrenn the New Yorker was polite about it, didn't offer a reason and recommended one of his proteges, John McLaughlin, handle the survey and strategy work. At the time, Helms was becoming one of the leading critics of the gay rights movement. "I took it that Arthur wasn't comfortable with Jesse's stand on the social issues," Wrenn said, and chalked it up to Finkelstein's libertarian views.
in November 1984, Finkelstein also found success in New Hampshire, as he aided freshman conservative Sen.
Gordon Humphrey
Gordon John Humphrey (born October 9, 1940) is an American politician from New Hampshire who served two terms in the U.S. Senate as a Republican from 1979 to 1990, and twice ran for Governor of New Hampshire, though both bids were unsuccessful.
E ...
in overcoming a tough challenge from long-time Democratic Congressman
Norman D'Amours
Norman Edward D'Amours (born October 14, 1937) is an American Democratic politician who was a member of the United States House of Representatives from New Hampshire from 1975 to 1985.
Early life
Born in Holyoke, Hampden County, Massachusetts ...
. But in Massachusetts, after winning a contested primary against
Elliot Richardson
Elliot Lee Richardson (July 20, 1920December 31, 1999) was an American lawyer and public servant who was a member of the cabinet of Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. As U.S. Attorney General, he was a prominent figure in the Watergate ...
, businessman
Ray Shamie
Raymond Shamie (June 7, 1921 – October 16, 1999) was an American politician and businessman from Massachusetts. Shamie served as the chair of the Massachusetts Republican Party and was twice the Republican nominee for the United States Senat ...
lost a close uphill battle to Lt. Gov.
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party (Unite ...
for the Senate seat vacated by
Paul Tsongas
Paul Efthemios Tsongas (; February 14, 1941 – January 18, 1997) was an American politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1979 until 1985 and in the United States House of Representatives from 1975 until 197 ...
. Another client, Congressman
Tom Corcoran, failed to dislodge incumbent
Charles Percy from the Senate nomination in Illinois, despite tough ads (attributed to Finkelstein) suggesting Percy was personally close to
PLO
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establishing Arab unity and s ...
leader
Yasser Arafat
Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini (4 / 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), popularly known as Yasser Arafat ( , ; ar, محمد ياسر عبد الرحمن عبد الرؤوف عرفات القدوة الحسيني, Mu ...
.
[Neal, Steve, "Dirty Political Ads Can Muddy the Perpetrator", ''Chicago Tribune'', April 13, 1986.]
His Congressional clients in 1984 included three New Yorkers –
Joseph DioGuardi
Joseph John DioGuardi (; born September 20, 1940) is an American certified public accountant and a Republican politician. DioGuardi served in the House of Representatives representing the 20th Congressional district of New York from 1985 to 198 ...
(who won election in Westchester County), Robert Quinn (who lost in Nassau County) and
Serphin Maltese
Serphin R. Maltese (born December 7, 1932) is an American attorney and retired politician from the state of New York. A onetime chairman of the Conservative Party of New York, Maltese served as a state senator from District 15 from 1989 through ...
(who lost a close race for
Geraldine Ferraro
Geraldine Anne Ferraro (August 26, 1935 March 26, 2011) was an American politician, diplomat, and attorney. She served in the United States House of Representatives from 1979 to 1985, and was the Democratic Party's vice presidential nominee ...
's seat in Queens). He helped guide
Bill Cobey
William Wilfred Cobey Jr. (born May 13, 1939) is an American politician. A member of the Republican Party, he served one term in the United States House of Representatives for North Carolina's 4th congressional district from 1985 to 1987.
Bio ...
to an upset victory for Congress in North Carolina against incumbent
Ike Andrews
Ike Franklin Andrews (September 2, 1925 – May 10, 2010) was an American politician. He served as a Democratic U.S. Congressman from North Carolina's Fourth Congressional District between 1973 and 1985, when he was defeated for reelection b ...
.
In 1985, Finkelstein polled for the gubernatorial campaign of Virginia Attorney General
Marshall Coleman
John Marshall Coleman (born June 8, 1942) is an American lawyer and Republican politician who served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly during the 1970s. He was the first Republican elected as Attorney General of Virginia since Recon ...
, losing the nomination to Wyatt Durrette (who was then defeated by Democrat
Gerald Baliles
Gerald Lee Baliles (July 8, 1940 – October 29, 2019) was a Virginia lawyer and Democratic politician whose career spanned great social and technological changes in his native state. The 65th Governor of Virginia (from 1986 to 1990), the na ...
).
Republicans lost their Senate majority in the November 1986 midterm elections. Nevertheless, Finkelstein's leading clients won re-election —
Alfonse D'Amato
Alfonse Marcello D'Amato (born August 1, 1937) is an American politician born in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York. He served as United States Senator for New York between 1981 and 1999. He subsequently founded a lobbying firm, Park Strategies.
...
in New York, and
Don Nickles
Donald Lee Nickles (born December 6, 1948) is an American politician and lobbyist who was a Republican United States Senator from Oklahoma from 1981 to 2005. He was considered both a fiscal and social conservative. After retiring from the Senat ...
in Oklahoma. However, his candidate to succeed John East in North Carolina,
David Funderburk
David Britton Funderburk (born April 28, 1944) is an American politician and diplomat who served as the Ambassador of the United States to Romania from 1981 to 1985. He later served as a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives fro ...
, lost his primary, and he fared no better in Ohio, where Congressman
Tom Kindness
Thomas Norman Kindness (August 26, 1929January 8, 2004) was a member of the United States House of Representatives representing Ohio from January 3, 1975 to January 3, 1987.
Life and career
Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, Kindness graduated from ...
made little headway against incumbent Sen.
John Glenn
John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was an American Marine Corps aviator, engineer, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the third American in space, and the first American to orbit the Earth, circling ...
as well as in Illinois, where state legislator
Judy Koehler
Judy Koehler (born September 20, 1941) is an American politician who served as a Republican member of the Illinois House of Representatives and Illinois Appellate Court Justice.
Illinois House of Representatives
Koehler was first elected to the I ...
failed to dislodge Senator
Alan Dixon
Alan John Dixon (July 7, 1927 – July 6, 2014) was an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who served in the Illinois General Assembly from 1951 to 1971, as the Illinois Treasurer from 1971 to 1977, as the Illinois Secretary of ...
.
Finkelstein also steered Californian
Elton Gallegly
Elton William Gallegly (born March 7, 1944) is a former U.S. Representative from California. A Republican, he last represented . He previously represented the 23rd and 21st Districts, and served from 1987 to 2013. He did not seek re-election in ...
to his initial victory for Congress, but failed to push State Sen.
Ed Davis to victory in the California U.S. Senate primary.
In 1985–87, Finkelstein was part of the team advising former U.N. Ambassador
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Jeane Duane Kirkpatrick (née Jordan; November 19, 1926December 7, 2006) was an American diplomat and political scientist who played a major role in the foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration. An ardent anticommunist, she was a lo ...
for a possible campaign for the Presidency. Kirkpatrick ultimately declined to run.
The Florida Senate contest of 1988 — closest in the country that year — was among Finkelstein's signature efforts. Congressman
Connie Mack III
Cornelius Alexander McGillicuddy III (born October 29, 1940), also known as Connie Mack III, is an American retired Republican politician. He served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Florida from 1983 to 1989 and th ...
won a tougher-than-expected primary, but his campaign did not wait for the results of the early-October Democratic runoff. Finkelstein determined (correctly) that Congressman
Buddy MacKay
Kenneth Hood "Buddy" MacKay Jr. (born March 22, 1933) is an American politician and diplomat who served as the 42nd governor of Florida for 24 days from December 1998 to January 1999, upon the death of Lawton Chiles. A member of the Democratic P ...
would emerge from the bitter face-off, and began running TV and radio ads re-defining MacKay through his liberal voting record, with the tagline, "Hey Buddy, You're a Liberal." MacKay's primary and runoff campaign had focused on ethics — appropriate for defeating Democrat
Bill Gunter
William Dawson Gunter Jr. (born July 16, 1934) is an American politician from the state of Florida.
Early life and education
Gunter was born in Jacksonville in 1934. He attended public schools in Live Oak and received his Bachelor of Science in ...
, but useless against Mack — and he failed to blunt the ideological attack. Still, the "Hey Buddy" ads were unpopular with the press, and 22 of 23 Florida daily newspapers endorsed MacKay.
Mack continued to press the liberal vs. conservative contrast in debates and ads, closing with endorsements by the highly popular
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
and
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...
, plus footage of MacKay endorsing various tax increases. A slight majority of voters casting ballots on Election Day backed MacKay, but an aggressive GOP absentee-voter program had already banked a margin of tens of thousands of votes, and Mack was elected senator by a total of 34,512 votes out of 4 million cast.
Finkelstein also advised
Joe Malone
Maurice Joseph Malone (February 28, 1890 – May 15, 1969) was a Canadian professional ice hockey centre. He played in the National Hockey Association (NHA) and National Hockey League (NHL) for the Quebec Bulldogs, Montreal Canadiens, and Hamilt ...
in his campaign against Massachusetts Sen.
Edward Kennedy
Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic ...
; Malone lost with 34%, but gained enough positive recognition that, in 1990, he was elected Treasurer in the overwhelmingly Democratic state. Another client,
Joseph DioGuardi
Joseph John DioGuardi (; born September 20, 1940) is an American certified public accountant and a Republican politician. DioGuardi served in the House of Representatives representing the 20th Congressional district of New York from 1985 to 198 ...
, lost his congressional re-election contest in New York, 48% to 50%, to
Nita Lowey
Nita Sue Lowey ( ) ( Melnikoff; born July 5, 1937) is an American politician who formerly served as a U.S. Representative from New York from 1989 until 2021. She is a member of the Democratic Party. Lowey also served as co-Dean of the New York C ...
. But, in another tight contest decided by absentee voters,
Denny Smith
Dennis Alan "Denny" Smith (born January 19, 1938) is an American businessman and former United States congressman from the state of Oregon. A native of the state, he served in the Air Force before working in the airline industry and taking over t ...
won re-election to Congress in Oregon.
1989–94: Focus on New York
Brooklyn native Finkelstein had long advised local and state party organizations in New York (e.g., the powerful GOP committees of
Westchester,
Nassau
Nassau may refer to:
Places Bahamas
*Nassau, Bahamas, capital city of the Bahamas, on the island of New Providence
Canada
*Nassau District, renamed Home District, regional division in Upper Canada from 1788 to 1792
*Nassau Street (Winnipeg), ...
and
Suffolk
Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...
Counties, then dominant in all three suburban areas).
In 1989, he dove into the contentious world of New York City politics.
Rudolph Giuliani
Rudolph William Louis Giuliani (, ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 107th Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney General from 1981 to 198 ...
's initial candidacy for Mayor was met with a primary challenge by cosmetics billionaire
Ronald Lauder
Ronald (Ron) Steven Lauder (born February 26, 1944) is an American businessman, billionaire, philanthropist, art collector, and political activist. He is the president of the World Jewish Congress since 2007. He and his brother, Leonard Lauder, ...
, backed by Sen. D'Amato and guided by Finkelstein. The Giuliani-D'Amato feud had begun in 1988 over the selection of Rudy's successor as
U.S. Attorney
United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal c ...
for the
Southern District of New York
The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case citations, S.D.N.Y.) is a federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of New York State. Two of these are in New York City: New Y ...
; it colored Republican politics in the Empire State for the next several years. In this first skirmish, Lauder's millions of dollars' worth of hard-hitting advertising failed to prevent Giuliani's winning the GOP nomination. (Giuliani later blamed Lauder's primary ads for his narrow loss to
David Dinkins
David Norman Dinkins (July 10, 1927 – November 23, 2020) was an American politician, lawyer, and author who served as the 106th mayor of New York City from 1990 to 1993. He was the first African American to hold the office.
Before enterin ...
that November.)
A year later, in the disastrous 1990 gubernatorial election, GOP nominee
Pierre Rinfret
Pierre Andre "Pete" Rinfret ( ; February 1, 1924 – June 29, 2006) was the founder of Rinfret-Boston Associates, an economic advisor to three American Presidents, and the Republican candidate for Governor of New York in 1990.
Biography
Rinf ...
nearly finished in third place (behind
Conservative Party of New York State
The Conservative Party of New York State is an American political party founded in 1962 following conservative dissatisfaction with the Republican Party in New York. Running on the Conservative Party line, James L. Buckley won election to the U ...
upstart
Herbert London
Herbert Ira London (March 6, 1939 – November 10, 2018) was an American conservative activist, commentator, author, and academic. London was the president of the Hudson Institute from 1997 to 2011. He was a frequent columnist for ''The Washingt ...
). D'Amato, and by extension Finkelstein, assumed dominance over the moribund state party apparatus. Long-time
Rensselaer County
Rensselaer County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 161,130. Its county seat is Troy. The county is named in honor of the family of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, the original Dutch owner of the la ...
activist
William Powers, a staunch D'Amato ally, was named chairman, and began the rebuilding process. (D'Amato allies had started their own state PAC in 1989, the Committee for New York, in order to aid Republicans independent of the decaying party team.)
At this time, the Reaganite Finkelstein was not a fan of the current Administration of
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...
. In a rare public appearance in February 1991, after the GOP's poor national showing in the November 1990 elections, he reminded a conservative audience that Reagan prospered through unabashed ideological appeals that drew crossover votes from sympathetic Democrats. But Bush and other GOP candidates "kicked that away" in 1990 by raising taxes, sidestepping abortion and other social issues, and soft-pedaling their anti-communism while rooting for
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...
to succeed. "We are going to have to go back to the things that got us here," Finkelstein said.
Meanwhile, D'Amato faced mounting ethical problems, and these occupied much of Finkelstein's time in 1990 and 1991. Though the New York senator was ultimately cleared by the
Senate Ethics Committee
The U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics is a select committee of the United States Senate charged with dealing with matters related to senatorial ethics. It is also commonly referred to as the Senate Ethics Committee. Senate rules require the ...
in 1991, he was the subject of ceaseless negative news stories and editorials.
When CBS's ''
60 Minutes
''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique styl ...
'' ran a highly damaging story on D'Amato, Finkelstein produced a response program that refuted many of its charges and misstatements. All the while, D'Amato's aggressive casework program and advocacy for New York interests was emphasized in paid and earned media.
Nevertheless, going into his 1992 re-election campaign, D'Amato was shown in surveys to be a near-certain loser to most prospective challengers. The indictment of his brother,
Armand D'Amato, on two dozen counts of
mail fraud
Mail fraud and wire fraud are terms used in the United States to describe the use of a physical or electronic mail system to defraud another, and are federal crimes there. Jurisdiction is claimed by the federal government if the illegal activit ...
in March 1992 darkened the clouds further.
When the Democrats nominated Attorney General
Robert Abrams
Robert Abrams (born July 4, 1938) is an American attorney and politician. He served as the attorney general of New York from 1979 to 1993 and was the Democratic nominee for the 1992 United States Senate election in New York.
Early life and educ ...
in September, Finkelstein's polls showed D'Amato down 25 points, just seven weeks before the election. With the huge lead enjoyed by Democratic presidential nominee
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
in New York, the Bush-Quayle ticket was a positive drag on D'Amato. As with the Mack-MacKay race in 1988, Finkelstein moved to define Abrams by his liberal positions on issues. Support for a single-payer national health scheme was translated into "a 6% tax on every job in America"—a contention never challenged. His backing for other tax increases was documented and publicized in TV and radio ads, with the tagline, "Bob Abrams: Hopelessly liberal".
The D'Amato campaign was no less bold on the ethics issue, repeating
pay-for-play charges made by ex-Rep.
Geraldine Ferraro
Geraldine Anne Ferraro (August 26, 1935 March 26, 2011) was an American politician, diplomat, and attorney. She served in the United States House of Representatives from 1979 to 1985, and was the Democratic Party's vice presidential nominee ...
during the Democratic primary, with ads featuring excerpts from the Abrams-Ferraro debate. When news stories late in the campaign revealed the nominee's disallowed business-tax deductions, Finkelstein's closing ad ran: "Bob Abrams never met a tax he didn't like ... except his own." On Election Day 1992, as
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
was winning New York State by 16 points, D'Amato won re-election by 1.2 points, a margin of 80,794 votes — with a wave of Clinton-D'Amato split-ticket voting in Brooklyn, Queens and Buffalo the deciding factor.
Finkelstein had several other results that day. In North Carolina, he helped the Ellis-Wrenn-Congressional Club team guide businessman and former Democrat
Lauch Faircloth
Duncan McLauchlin "Lauch" Faircloth (born January 14, 1928) is an American politician who served one term as a Republican U.S. Senator from North Carolina.
Before his Senate service, Faircloth was a prominent and wealthy hog farmer. One impetus ...
to victory over incumbent Sen.
Terry Sanford
James Terry Sanford (August 20, 1917April 18, 1998) was an American lawyer and politician from North Carolina. A member of the Democratic Party, Sanford served as the 65th Governor of North Carolina from 1961 to 1965, was a two-time U.S. pre ...
.
Don Nickles
Donald Lee Nickles (born December 6, 1948) is an American politician and lobbyist who was a Republican United States Senator from Oklahoma from 1981 to 2005. He was considered both a fiscal and social conservative. After retiring from the Senat ...
easily won a third term as senator from Oklahoma. But in Illinois, the candidacy of
Rich Williamson failed to defeat Democrat
Carol Moseley Braun
Carol Elizabeth Moseley Braun, also sometimes Moseley-Braun (born August 16, 1947), is a former U.S. Senator, an American diplomat, politician, and lawyer who represented Illinois in the United States Senate from 1993 to 1999. Prior to her Senate ...
to replace Sen.
Alan Dixon
Alan John Dixon (July 7, 1927 – July 6, 2014) was an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who served in the Illinois General Assembly from 1951 to 1971, as the Illinois Treasurer from 1971 to 1977, as the Illinois Secretary of ...
.
D'Amato's comeback win had demonstrated the Republicans' window of opportunity in New York City's
outer boroughs
New York City is composed of five boroughs: The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. Each borough is coextensive with a respective county of New York State, making New York City the largest U.S. municipality situated in mult ...
, among working-class Catholics and (especially) Jewish voters angered by Democratic leaders' handling of the
Crown Heights violence and subsequent incidents.
The senator's ticket-splitting performance had the effect of shielding downticket candidates from the Bush debacle, and Republicans actually made Congressional gains in strong D'Amato areas — e.g., working-class Buffalo (
Jack Quinn), and suburban Long Island (
Rick Lazio
Enrico Anthony Lazio (; born March 13, 1958) is an American attorney and former four-term U.S. Representative from the State of New York. A Long Island native, Lazio became well-known during his bid for U.S. Senate in New York's 2000 Senate elec ...
) — while holding the majority in the powerful State Senate, which strengthened the hand of D'Amato, Finkelstein and Powers going into 1993 and 1994.
Giuliani's second Mayoral campaign in 1993 benefited from the resurgent New York GOP. He had made a point of endorsing the Senator for re-election, and D'Amato and Finkelstein did not again back a primary challenger. This time, Giuliani ran a more effective race, riding to victory on a wave of discontent with incumbent
David Dinkins
David Norman Dinkins (July 10, 1927 – November 23, 2020) was an American politician, lawyer, and author who served as the 106th mayor of New York City from 1990 to 1993. He was the first African American to hold the office.
Before enterin ...
, with even stronger turnout among ethnic Catholics and Jewish voters than in 1989, and in the same areas where D'Amato had done well a year earlier.
In New York City in November 1993, Finkelstein and
Ronald Lauder
Ronald (Ron) Steven Lauder (born February 26, 1944) is an American businessman, billionaire, philanthropist, art collector, and political activist. He is the president of the World Jewish Congress since 2007. He and his brother, Leonard Lauder, ...
also guided to victory a measure limiting the terms of elected city officials.
[Myers, Steven Lee]
"New Yorkers Approve Limit of 2 Terms for City Officials"
''The New York Times'', November 3, 1993. ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' called this vote "a terrific defeat for the city's mostly Democratic political establishment, which had fought in court throughout the summer to kill the referendum, only to have the state's highest court order it on the ballot just two weeks
efore the election"
Finkelstein had specialized in federal elections to this point, and it was uncertain how he would adapt to the localized issues and personal style of a gubernatorial contest. Reluctantly at first, and only after considering several alternative candidates, he and D'Amato settled on supporting little-known State Senator
George Pataki
George Elmer Pataki (; born June 24, 1945) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 53rd governor of New York from 1995 to 2006. An attorney by profession, Pataki was elected mayor of his hometown of Peekskill, New York, and went on ...
of
Peekskill
Peekskill is a city in northwestern Westchester County, New York, United States, from New York City. Established as a village in 1816, it was incorporated as a city in 1940. It lies on a bay along the east side of the Hudson River, across fr ...
for Governor in 1994.
[Pataki, George, with Daniel Paisner, ''Pataki: An Autobiography'' (New York: Viking, 1998), pp. 69–72 ] They guided him through the State Convention in May, and to a smashing 3-to-1 primary victory in September over
Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (July 8, 1908 – January 26, 1979), sometimes referred to by his nickname Rocky, was an American businessman and politician who served as the 41st vice president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. A member of t ...
's longtime political wheelhorse Richard Rosenbaum.
The main challenge was defining the race against Cuomo. Finkelstein's first ad radiated disappointment and sowed seeds of disbelief: "Desperate candidates do desperate things ...
Mario Cuomo
Mario Matthew Cuomo (, ; June 15, 1932 – January 1, 2015) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 52nd governor of New York for three terms, from 1983 to 1994. A member of the Democratic Party, Cuomo previously served as t ...
could have been senator or President..." Subsequent spots, often as brief as 10 seconds, highlighted Cuomo-era failures (e.g. snarled traffic and record-high utility rates in Long Island), and especially the litany of tax increases over his 12 years. The persistent tagline: "Mario Cuomo: Too liberal for too long."
Pataki introduced himself in ads first as a gentle reformer, then angry in responding to Cuomo attacks, and finally enthusiastic (in excerpts from rally speeches at campaign's close). Cuomo defended his record and played up D'Amato's sponsorship of Pataki's campaign (to the tune of
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actor whose career has spanned six decades. He is one of the most acclaimed songwriters in popular music, both as a solo artist and as half of folk roc ...
's "
You Can Call Me Al
"You Can Call Me Al" is a song by American singer-songwriter Paul Simon. It was the lead single from his seventh studio album, ''Graceland'' (1986), released on Warner Bros. Records. Written by Simon, its lyrics follow an individual seemingly ex ...
"), but had trouble overcoming the anti-incumbent tide.
Pataki had a slight lead in public surveys when, on October 24, Giuliani endorsed Cuomo, with attacks on his fellow Republican quickly becoming a staple on evening news programs. Poll numbers fluctuated wildly, with Finkelstein's own tracking survey showing a Cuomo lead ballooning to 13 points within days. It required a swift response. He elected to attack Giuliani's endorsement as a corrupt deal with Cuomo, the ad using headlines citing suspiciously timed New York State grants to the City to suggest the Governor had used taxpayer money to buy the Mayor's backing.
Pataki relentlessly pushed this argument in public appearances.
The pendulum swung back, with negative reaction to Giuliani especially strong Upstate and in the Metro North and Long Island suburbs. (GOP protestors even chased the Mayor's plane on an airport tarmac during a statewide flyaround for Cuomo.) Pataki closed the sale with an energetic tour of the state, appearing alone on a WCBS-TV Election Eve program when Cuomo refused a one-on-one debate. The final result: Pataki defeated Cuomo by 4 points. In an historic Republican landslide year, Mario Cuomo was the most prominent Democrat to fall. As
Todd Purdum
Todd Stanley Purdum (born December 13, 1959) is an American journalist who works as a national editor and political correspondent for '' Vanity Fair''.
Early life and education
Purdum is a son of Jerry S. Purdum, a Macomb, Illinois insurance bro ...
of ''The New York Times'' wrote that November, "For good or ill, Mr. Pataki's campaign
a almost entirely a creation of Mr. Finkelstein."
Delaware provided another win for Finkelstein in November 1994, as longtime Senator
Bill Roth coasted to victory for his fifth term, 56% to 44%.
1995–98: NRSC, Netanyahu, "Outed", and New York
Following Election Day 1994, D'Amato and Finkelstein were handed new challenges and opportunities, as the 14-year incumbent was named by his Senate peers as chairman of the
National Republican Senatorial Committee
The National Republican Senate Committee (NRSC) is the Republican Hill committee for the United States Senate, working to elect Republicans to that body. The NRSC was founded in 1916 as the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee. It was reorgan ...
(NRSC), one of the four permanent GOP campaign operations in Washington. They had a tough act to follow—
Phil Gramm
William Philip Gramm (born July 8, 1942) is an American economist and politician who represented Texas in both chambers of Congress. Though he began his political career as a Democrat, Gramm switched to the Republican Party in 1983. Gramm was ...
of Texas had just piloted Republicans to a 7-seat gain and recaptured control of the Senate. For Finkelstein, it was his first bow as an inside player on a Washington campaign committee, his dealings previously being as representative of an individual candidate. Now he and D'Amato were responsible for helping to direct Senate campaigns in 33 states simultaneously.
One of their first moves was to break the cycle of hiring parochial-minded Senate aides to manage the sprawling committee; their choice for Executive Director was
John Heubusch
John Dwyer Heubusch ( ; born 1958) is an American political and private-sector executive and author, best known for his current work directing the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute in Simi Valley, California, overseeing the leg ...
(later a top executive with
Gateway Computers
Gateway, Inc., previously Gateway 2000, is an American computer hardware company. The company developed, manufactured, supported, and marketed a wide range of personal computers, computer monitors, servers, and computer accessories. It was acq ...
and head of the
Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library is the repository of presidential records from the administration of Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, and the burial place of the president and first lady, Nancy Reagan. It is the larg ...
). Other key hires were
Jo Anne B. Barnhart
Jo Anne Bryant Barnhart (born January 1, 1950) was the 14th Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, filling a six-year term of office that ran through January 19, 2007.
Biography
She was nominated by President George W. Bush on July ...
as Political Director, and
Gordon Hensley as Communications Director. Barnhart was a long-time aide and campaigner for Senator
William Roth
William Victor Roth Jr. (July 22, 1921 – December 13, 2003) was an American lawyer and politician from Wilmington, Delaware. He was a veteran of World War II and a member of the Republican Party. He served from 1967 to 1970 as the lone U. ...
, and later served as Commissioner of the
Social Security Administration
The United States Social Security Administration (SSA) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government that administers Social Security (United ...
. All three were singled out by ''Roll Call'' newspaper in 1996 as among national "Politics' Fabulous Fifty."
The NRSC faced several challenges beyond their control, many emanating from the two dominant Republicans of 1995-96, House Speaker
Newt Gingrich
Newton Leroy Gingrich (; né McPherson; born June 17, 1943) is an American politician and author who served as the 50th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party, he was the U ...
and Senate Majority Leader
Bob Dole
Robert Joseph Dole (July 22, 1923 – December 5, 2021) was an American politician and attorney who represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996. He was the Republican Leader of the Senate during the final 11 years of his te ...
. The
Oklahoma City bombing
The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, on April 19, 1995. Perpetrated by two anti-government extremists, Timothy McVeigh and Terry N ...
had given President
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
an opportunity to marginalize his opponents, and slowed the momentum of the reform-minded Republican Congress.
By late 1995, unrelenting Democratic/press attacks, and his own missteps, had turned Gingrich into a pariah through much of the country (2-to-1 unfav-fav ratio in surveys); meanwhile, Dole was running for President, and allowing ambition to overshadow his Senate work. In mid-1996, Dole resigned from the Senate to campaign full-time, but by then he was behind Clinton to stay, and eventually polled less than 41% nationwide.
[Scammon, Richard ''et al'', ''America Votes 22 : a handbook of contemporary American election statistics, 1996'' (CQ Press, 1997)]
D'Amato remained personally devoted to Dole, but Finkelstein and the NRSC team urged Republican Senate candidates to cut loose from unpopular national leaders and carve their own individual profiles on issues. D'Amato remained a champion fundraiser and the committee found new legal ways to deliver assistance to Senate campaigns and local parties. The NRSC paid particular attention to blunting the wave of millionaire political unknowns (e.g.,
Tom Bruggere in Oregon, Elliott Close in South Carolina) recruited that year by the Democrats. It shored up many endangered incumbents, including
Bob Smith (New Hampshire),
John Warner
John William Warner III (February 18, 1927 – May 25, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the United States Secretary of the Navy from 1972 to 1974 and as a five-term Republican U.S. Senator from Virginia from 1979 to 200 ...
(Virginia), 75-year-old Jesse Helms (North Carolina) and 94-year-old Strom Thurmond (South Carolina).
On Election Night, as Clinton defeated Dole by nearly 9 points and Gingrich's House Republicans lost a net 8 seats, Senate Republicans won open seats in Alabama, Arkansas and Nebraska, while losing South Dakota. In a poor GOP year, the D'Amato–Finkelstein NRSC had gained a net 2 seats (and narrowly missed another gain in the
Max Cleland
Joseph Maxwell Cleland (August 24, 1942 – November 9, 2021) was an American politician from Georgia. A member of the Democratic Party, he was a disabled U.S. Army veteran of the Vietnam War, a recipient of the Silver Star and the Bronze Star fo ...
–
Guy Millner
Guy W. Millner (born February 16, 1936) is an American multi-millionaire businessman who ran as a Republican for Governor of Georgia in 1994, United States Senator from Georgia in 1996 and Governor of Georgia in 1998, losing all three races.
M ...
race in Georgia).
Finkelstein was not a consultant to the Dole Presidential campaign, despite his closeness to several of its top staffers. But, in the election's waning days, ''Time'' magazine reporter Erik Pooley detected the New Yorker's influence on strategy, writing:
For Arthur Finkelstein, this week might have been a vindication: Bob Dole finally started labeling Bill Clinton a "spend-and-tax liberal," using a crude but often effective strategy known as "Finkel-think" by some Dole advisers, because the secretive Republican strategist has been deploying it on behalf of his clients for 20 years ... These days, Finkelstein is exercising a kind of remote control. The Senator's latest brain trust is dominated by "Arthur's Boys" ... And Dole is rushing around the country chanting the Finkelstein mantra. "Liberal! Liberal! Liberal!" he cried in St. Louis, Missouri.[Pooley, Erik, ''Time'', October 7, 1996, "The Mystery Man Who Inspired Dole's Latest Strategy," accessed thru http://edition.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/analysis/time/9610/07/pooley.shtml]
His own statewide clients in 1996 showed a mixed record, with Senator
Larry Pressler
Larry Lee Pressler (born March 29, 1942) is an American lawyer and politician from South Dakota who served in the United States House of Representatives (1975–1979) and United States Senate (1979–1997) as a Republican. He remained active in p ...
(South Dakota) and ex-Senator
Rudy Boschwitz
Rudolph Ely Boschwitz (born November 7, 1930) is an American politician and businessman who served as a United States senator from Minnesota from 1978 until 1991. Boschwitz is a member of the Republican Party.
He was born in Berlin to a Jewish ...
(Minnesota) both losing, albeit in close races.
Bob Smith survived with a 49% plurality win. New Jersey Congressman
Dick Zimmer
Richard Alan Zimmer (born August 16, 1944) is an American Republican Party politician from New Jersey, who served in both houses of the New Jersey Legislature and in the United States House of Representatives. He was the Republican nominee for ...
was defeated in his Senate bid against
Robert Torricelli
Robert Guy Torricelli (born August 27, 1951), is an American attorney and former politician. A Democrat, Torricelli served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Jersey's 9th district from 1983 to 1997 and as a United States sen ...
.'
Earlier in 1996, he also helped
Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu (; ; born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who served as the ninth prime minister of Israel from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 to 2021. He is currently serving as Leader of the Opposition and Chairman of ...
oust
Shimon Peres
Shimon Peres (; he, שמעון פרס ; born Szymon Perski; 2 August 1923 – 28 September 2016) was an Israeli politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Israel from 1984 to 1986 and from 1995 to 1996 and as the ninth president of ...
as Prime Minister of Israel in a close upset.
According to ''
The Jerusalem Post
''The Jerusalem Post'' is a broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''The Palestine Post''. In 1950, it changed its name to ''The Jerusalem Post''. In 2004, the paper w ...
'', "Finkelstein was largely responsible for the strategy that brought Netanyahu victory in the 1996 general elections."
According to the ''
Times of Israel
''The Times of Israel'' is an Israeli multi-language online newspaper that was launched in 2012. It was co-founded by Israeli journalist David Horovitz, who is also the founding editor, and American billionaire investor Seth Klarman. '', "Finkelstein was behind the "Peres will divide Jerusalem" slogan that helped Netanyahu overcome Shimon Peres who had been forecast to sweep to power in the wake of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin the previous November. That election was credited with changing the tone of Israeli campaigns, bringing more American-style, aggressive and negative campaigning to Israel." But his expertise helped in subtler ways as well; biographer Neill Lochery wrote in 2016 that Finkelstein was behind such ideas as dyeing Netanyahu's salt-and-pepper hair gray to give him a more statesmanlike appearance.
Jeff Barak of ''The Jerusalem Post'', a harsh critic of Finkelstein and Netanyahu, called the strategist "the brains behind Netanyahu's first election victory in 1996. Netanyahu's campaign back then, from which he has never wavered, was that you're either for him or an enemy of the people. His campaign slogan at the time, 'Netanyahu is good for the Jews,' encapsulated this. By implication, if you're not for Netanyahu then you're not good for the Jews, and therefore an enemy. And if Netanyahu is good for the Jews, then this also not-so-subtly hints that Netanyahu's bad for the Arabs, regardless of the fact that they are supposedly citizens of equal standing who comprise around 20% of the country's population."
Finkelstein's greatest personal challenge that year came with the August issue of ''
Boston magazine
''Boston'' is a monthly magazine concerning life in the Greater Boston area and has been in publication since 1805.
History and profile
''Boston'' magazine was started in 1805. Metrocorp, Inc. bought the magazine in 1970. The company also owns ...
'', which revealed his private life as a homosexual; the ostensible excuse for the outing was that several Finkelstein clients had voted against gay-rights measures in Congress, and his work to elect them was therefore inconsistent and/or hypocritical. In September, D'Amato said, "I don't think a person's sexual orientation, his private life — a person's private life should be brought up and I think the question is offensive, it's wrong. He's a wonderful, decent person and whatever his sexual orientation is, that's his business."
Finkelstein's next two years anchored him again in New York, for the simultaneous re-election campaigns of Senator D'Amato and Governor Pataki in 1998. The contests were as different as the candidates themselves, with the calm, earnest Pataki winning high approval ratings and discouraging stronger Democrats from challenging him. New Yorkers' approval of Republican executives was signaled with the landslide re-election of Giuliani as Mayor in November 1997.
Finkelstein crafted a highly positive campaign for Pataki, focusing on fulfillment of promises from 1994 (e.g., tax cuts) and policy innovations (the STAR tax program for seniors) Raising $21 million, Pataki defeated New York City Council President
Peter Vallone
Peter Fortunate Vallone Sr. (born December 13, 1934 in New York City) is an American politician.
Background
His father, Judge Charles J. Vallone (1901–1967) of the Queens County Civil Court, encouraged young Peter to broaden his horizons b ...
by 21 percentage points, polling 54.3%, the largest share by a Republican for Governor since
Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (July 8, 1908 – January 26, 1979), sometimes referred to by his nickname Rocky, was an American businessman and politician who served as the 41st vice president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. A member of t ...
in 1958.
D'Amato was another matter; since his narrow victory in 1992, his profile had grown more partisan Republican in this still-heavily Democratic state. Summoning First Lady
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
to testify before his Senate committee in 1995, and aggressive campaigning for Dole in 1996, damaged D'Amato in a state where
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
crushed the Kansan by nearly 2-to-1 (60% to 31%), doubling his 1992 margin over Bush.
D'Amato's decision to divorce his wife after a long separation and announce his engagement to a young socialite did not help his favorable ratings, while others recalled his mock-Japanese impression of
O. J. Simpson case Judge
Lance Ito
Lance Allan Ito (born August 2, 1950) is a retired American judge best known for presiding over the criminal trial for the O. J. Simpson murder case, held in the Los Angeles County Superior Court in 1995.
Early life and career
Ito was born i ...
in 1995 (for which he was forced to apologize on the Senate floor).
D'Amato raised a record $26 million for the 1998 campaign, and Finkelstein went to work early shoring up his client's "Senator Pothole" image of close attention to local needs and the problems of individual New Yorkers (as he had done successfully in 1992). State polls showed a swing back to such issues as health care and social concerns, which needed to be addressed. The tagline of these ads: "Al D'Amato Cares, Al D'Amato Makes a Difference, Al D'Amato Gets Things Done."
The Democratic primary was ultimately between Queens politician
Geraldine Ferraro
Geraldine Anne Ferraro (August 26, 1935 March 26, 2011) was an American politician, diplomat, and attorney. She served in the United States House of Representatives from 1979 to 1985, and was the Democratic Party's vice presidential nominee ...
and U.S. Representative
Charles Schumer
Charles Ellis Schumer ( ; born November 23, 1950) is an American politician serving as Senate Majority Leader since January 20, 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, Schumer is in his fourth Senate term, having held his seat since 1999, and ...
of Brooklyn. Finkelstein prepared for both eventualities. When Schumer won by a surprisingly large margin, he immediately began ads that raised questions about the candidate's work ethic. (As Congressman, Schumer had missed an inordinate number of committee meetings.) The unexpected line of attack stymied the Democrat in late September and early October, and despite his weaknesses D'Amato gamely held onto a lead.
[''Albany Times-Union'' poll, cited in ''New York Post'', October 24, 1998, "Putz' Chuck; Says La Lied About It ; D'Amato Gives Brushoff: 'It Fits'". by Robert Hardt Jr. & Gregg Birnbaum]
All this collapsed in late October, after a remarkable show of hubris and bad judgment at a closed-door meeting with Jewish supporters in Brooklyn.
First, D'Amato did a waddling impression of then-obese Democratic U.S. Rep.
Jerrold Nadler
Jerrold Lewis Nadler (; born June 13, 1947) is an American lawyer and politician who since 2013 has served as the U.S. representative for , which includes Manhattan's west side and parts of Brooklyn. A member of the Democratic Party, he is in ...
. Later in the meeting, he referred to Schumer as a "putzhead" (a mangling of the
Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
vulgarism "
putz"). He later denied using this characterization, during questions from reporters (but was swiftly contradicted by his own supporters, present at the meeting, including
Ed Koch
Edward Irving Koch ( ; December 12, 1924February 1, 2013) was an American politician, lawyer, political commentator, film critic, and television personality. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977 and was may ...
). Film of the denial was turned into a Schumer TV ad within days.
Finkelstein's tracking survey the night of D'Amato's "putzhead" comment showed the senator leading Schumer by 10 points with two weeks to go. But the meltdown was quick and decisive, especially among Jewish voters, with Schumer's ads relentlessly driving the message of D'Amato's dishonesty and dislikeability. The Democrat's closing tagline was itself a homage to Finkelstein: "D'Amato: Too many lies for too long." Schumer won, 55% to 44%—a 20-point turnaround.
In other races that year, Senator
Lauch Faircloth
Duncan McLauchlin "Lauch" Faircloth (born January 14, 1928) is an American politician who served one term as a Republican U.S. Senator from North Carolina.
Before his Senate service, Faircloth was a prominent and wealthy hog farmer. One impetus ...
—who had earlier replaced Finkelstein for his 1998 reelection campaign in North Carolina — brought him back into the fold in the closing weeks of the race. (Faircloth ultimately lost a close contest to Democrat
John Edwards
Johnny Reid Edwards (born June 10, 1953) is an American lawyer and former politician who served as a U.S. senator from North Carolina. He was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004 alongside John Kerry, losing to incumbents George ...
.)
Later clients and campaigns, 1999–2017
International
In the 2000s, Finkelstein spent more time working overseas than in previous decades, with clients in
Albania
Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...
,
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
,
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
, the
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
,
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
,
Kosovo
Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
,
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
and
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...
(the last, in coordination with
George Birnbaum
George Eli Birnbaum (born 1970) is an American political consultant. He worked on the United States congressional and senatorial races. In 1998, he moved to Israel to work as a consultant to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, became his chief of ...
.) He continued to consult in Israeli elections, working again for
Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu (; ; born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who served as the ninth prime minister of Israel from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 to 2021. He is currently serving as Leader of the Opposition and Chairman of ...
in 1999,
Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon (; ; ; also known by his diminutive Arik, , born Ariel Scheinermann, ; 26 February 1928 – 11 January 2014) was an Israeli general and politician who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Israel from March 2001 until April 2006.
S ...
(whom he helped become Prime Minister in 2001
), and finally
Avigdor Lieberman
Avigdor Lieberman (, ; russian: Эве́т Льво́вич Ли́берман, Evet Lvovich Liberman, ; born 5 June 1958) is a Soviet-born Israeli politician serving as Minister of Finance since 2021, having previously served twice as Deputy ...
and his
Yisrael Beytenu
Yisrael Beiteinu ( he, יִשְׂרָאֵל בֵּיתֵנוּ, russian: Наш Дом Израиль, lit. ''Israel Our Home'') is a secularist, nationalist right-wing political party in Israel. The party's base was originally secular Russia ...
party.
Florida
Having twice steered
Connie Mack III
Cornelius Alexander McGillicuddy III (born October 29, 1940), also known as Connie Mack III, is an American retired Republican politician. He served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Florida from 1983 to 1989 and th ...
to Senate victories in 1988 and 1994, Finkelstein was in demand for the 2000 Florida contest upon Mack's retirement. His candidate was 10-term Congressman
Bill McCollum
Ira William McCollum Jr. (born July 12, 1944) is an American lawyer and Republican Party politician. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1981 to 2001, representing Florida's 5th congressional district, which was l ...
, and he helped clear the Republican field early in anticipation of a tough general election against Insurance Commissioner
Bill Nelson
Clarence William Nelson II (born September 29, 1942) is an American politician and attorney serving as the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Nelson previously served as a United States Senator from Flor ...
. It was a nail-biter with many echoes of the 1988 Senate campaign, but with a different outcome. As enthusiasm among Republican voters faltered in the final days (after revelations of
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
's 1976 DUI conviction), GOP coattails and McCollum's slim lead disappeared, and Nelson was elected, 51% to 46%.
[Scammon, Richard ''et al'', ''America Votes 24 : a handbook of contemporary American election statistics, 2000'' (CQ Press, 2001)]
McCollum ran for the other Florida Senate seat on Democrat
Bob Graham
Daniel Robert "Bob" Graham (born November 9, 1936) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 38th governor of Florida from 1979 to 1987 and a United States senator from Florida from 1987 to 2005. He is a member of the Dem ...
's retirement in 2004, but succumbed to eventual Senator
Mel Martinez
Mel, Mels or MEL may refer to:
Biology
* Mouse erythroleukemia cell line (MEL)
* National Herbarium of Victoria, a herbarium with the Index Herbariorum code MEL
People
* Mel (given name), the abbreviated version of several given names (including ...
after low fundraising allowed the challenger to overcome his early lead. But McCollum was more successful in 2006, when he was the consensus GOP choice for Attorney General, and defeated Democrat
Skip Campbell
Walter G. "Skip" Campbell Jr. (November 12, 1948 – October 23, 2018) was an American Democratic Party (United States), Democratic politician who served as a member of the Florida Senate from 1996 to 2006. Later, he served as the Mayor of Coral ...
, 53% to 47%, polling well in a poor year for Republicans.
In 2009 and 2010, Finkelstein helmed McCollum's campaign for Florida Governor, where he was the favorite of the state's GOP Establishment. These plans were upended by the surprise candidacy of wealthy businessman
Rick Scott
Richard Lynn Scott ( Myers, born December 1, 1952) is an American politician serving as the junior United States senator from Florida since 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was the 45th governor of Florida from 2011 to 2019.
Scott ...
, whose bottomless spending that year ($75 million from his personal coffers) led to a furious contest for the nomination. McCollum fought gamely, but lost the bid to Scott, 44% to 46%, who went on to win election to the Statehouse that November against Democrat
Alex Sink
Adelaide Alexander Sink (born June 5, 1948) is an American politician and financier. A member of the Democratic Party, Sink was the Chief Financial Officer for the state of Florida and treasurer on the board of trustees of the Florida State Boar ...
.
A 2004 open seat in Florida's 14th Congressional District allowed Finkelstein to help create a political dynasty, as he steered State Rep.
Connie Mack IV
Cornelius Harvey McGillicuddy (born August 12, 1967), popularly known as Connie Mack IV, is an American politician and lobbyist. He is the former U.S. Representative for , serving from 2005 to 2013. A Republican, he ran for the U.S. Senate in 20 ...
to a narrow victory in a four-way primary, then general-election wins in 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010.
Finkelstein served as strategist for Mack's Senate campaign in 2012; a late entrant in the primary, the Congressman won the GOP nomination with 58%, but was defeated by incumbent
Bill Nelson
Clarence William Nelson II (born September 29, 1942) is an American politician and attorney serving as the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Nelson previously served as a United States Senator from Flor ...
by a million votes in the Obama re-election year. (Mack IV later became a lobbyist, whose clients included the government of Hungary, whose leader
Viktor Orbán
Viktor Mihály Orbán (; born 31 May 1963) is a Hungarian politician who has served as prime minister of Hungary since 2010, previously holding the office from 1998 to 2002. He has presided over Fidesz since 1993, with a brief break between 20 ...
was a leading Finkelstein client in the 2010s.)
New York
Pataki's third gubernatorial campaign, in 2002, provided some fresh challenges to Finkelstein, including a contest for the
Conservative Party of New York State
The Conservative Party of New York State is an American political party founded in 1962 following conservative dissatisfaction with the Republican Party in New York. Running on the Conservative Party line, James L. Buckley won election to the U ...
nomination, a still-shrinking Republican base, and a strong third-party challenge from millionaire
B. Thomas Golisano, running again on the
Independence Party
Independence Party may refer to:
Active parties Outside United States
* Independence Party (Egypt)
* Estonian Independence Party
* Independence Party (Finland)
* Independence Party (Iceland)
* Independence Party (Mauritius)
* Independence Part ...
line.
[Dicker, Frederic U., ''New York Post'', November 6, 2002, "Winners and Losers"] Finkelstein positioned Pataki as an economic conservative but far more moderate on social and spending issues than in previous campaigns. This shift won the endorsement of influential union leaders such as
Dennis Rivera and
Randi Weingarten
Randi Weingarten (born December 18, 1957)''Who's Who in America'', 2007. is an American labor leader, attorney, and educator. She is president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and a member of the AFL–CIO. She is the former presiden ...
. Pataki enjoyed a 15-point victory, polling 48% to 33% for state Comptroller
H. Carl McCall
Herman Carl McCall (born October 17, 1935) is an American politician of the United States Democratic Party, Democratic Party. A former New York State Comptroller and New York State Senator, McCall was the United States Democratic Party, Democrat ...
, and 14% for Golisano.
Finkelstein tried to make use of Pataki's likely coattails by helming the campaign of
David Cornstein for the state Comptroller slot being vacated by McCall. Cornstein, a successful businessman and Giuliani's appointed chief of
Off-Track Betting
Off-track betting (or OTB; in British English, off-course betting) is sanctioned gambling on horse racing outside a race track.
U.S. history
Before the 1970s, only the state of Nevada allowed off-track betting. Off-track betting in New York was ...
, brought personal resources and a strong finance team to the table. He was a longtime ally of both the Mayor and Governor, with a City/Long Island base and unusual appeal as a Jewish Republican running as a moderate-conservative. But party regulars instead fell in decisively behind former Upstate Assemblyman
John Faso
John James Faso Jr. (born August 25, 1952) is an American attorney and politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 2017 to 2019. Faso was first elected to the post in 2016. A Republican, Faso previously represented the 102nd distr ...
, a onetime legislative leader for the GOP minority, and Cornstein abandoned his run in 2001. (Faso further failed to expand his appeal beyond the limited Republican base, losing with 47% in November 2002; in his subsequent 2006 bid for Governor of New York,
Eliot Spitzer
Eliot Laurence Spitzer (born June 10, 1959) is an American politician and attorney. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he was the 54th governor of New York from 2007 until his resignation in 2008.
Spitzer was b ...
crushed him, Faso polling just 29%.) In 2017, Cornstein was named U.S. Ambassador to Hungary.
Back in New York in April 2005, Finkelstein announced the organization of
Stop Her Now, a
527 committee
A 527 organization or 527 group is a type of U.S. tax-exempt organization organized under Section 527 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code (). A 527 group is created primarily to influence the selection, nomination, election, appointment or defeat ...
dedicated to defeating then-Senator
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
in the
2006 New York U.S. Senate race. Clinton sailed to an easy re-election, and the PAC was not a factor in the contest.
In the titanic struggle over new stadium construction on Manhattan's
West Side
West Side or Westside may refer to:
Places Canada
* West Side, a neighbourhood of Windsor, Ontario
* West Side, a neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia
United Kingdom
* West Side, Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland
* Westside, Birmingham E ...
, Finkelstein was hired to defeat the proposal by
Cablevision
Cablevision Systems Corporation was an American cable television company with systems serving areas surrounding New York City. It was the fifth-largest cable provider and ninth-largest television provider in the United States. Throughout its ex ...
,
MSG
Monosodium glutamate (MSG), also known as sodium glutamate, is the sodium Salt (chemistry), salt of glutamic acid. MSG is found naturally in some foods including tomatoes and cheese in this glutamic acid form. MSG is used in cooking as a fl ...
and its allies; they ultimately prevailed, and the
new Yankee Stadium
Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the Bronx, New York City. It is the home field of the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball, and New York City FC of Major League Soccer.
Opened in April 2009, the stadium replaced the ori ...
was instead built in the Bronx, next to the old ballfield site, opening in 2009. It was the only time that the Finkelstein firm filed disclosure forms as a lobbyist (the filer was Ronald Finkelstein, not Arthur).
Finkelstein advised former Congressman
Rick Lazio
Enrico Anthony Lazio (; born March 13, 1958) is an American attorney and former four-term U.S. Representative from the State of New York. A Long Island native, Lazio became well-known during his bid for U.S. Senate in New York's 2000 Senate elec ...
during his campaign for the 2010 Republican nomination for New York Governor.: Lazio lost the GOP nomination contest to businessman
Carl Paladino.
North Carolina
Finkelstein continued to partner with Carter Wrenn on Tar Heel State races after the demise of the National Congressional Club.
In 2000, former Charlotte mayor (and UNC basketball star)
Richard Vinroot
Richard A. Vinroot (born April 14, 1941) is an American politician and attorney from Charlotte, North Carolina. He served as the 52nd Mayor of Charlotte from 1991 to 1995. Vinroot ran unsuccessfully for Governor of North Carolina in 1996, 2000 an ...
sought the Governorship, to succeed the term-limited Democrat
Jim Hunt
James Baxter Hunt Jr. (born May 16, 1937) is an American politician and retired attorney who was the List of governors of North Carolina, 69th and 71st Governor of North Carolina (1977–1985, and 1993–2001). He is the longest-serving governo ...
. Vinroot won a contested fight for the GOP nomination, but the drop in Republican-voter enthusiasm in the closing days (noted above in Florida) hurt here as well, and Vinroot was defeated by
Mike Easley
Michael Francis Easley (born March 23, 1950) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 72nd governor of North Carolina from 2001 to 2009. He is the first
governor of North Carolina to have been convicted of a felony.
A member of ...
, 44% to 52%.
In one of Finkelstein's last major races before his death, he worked with Wrenn in 2016 to win a spirited primary fight between two sitting Congressmen –
George Holding
George Edward Bell Holding (born April 17, 1968) is an American politician, lawyer, and former federal prosecutor who is a former United States Representative for North Carolina's 2nd congressional district from 2017 to 2021. He previously repre ...
and
Renee Ellmers
Renee Louise Ellmers ( Jacisin; born February 9, 1964) is an American registered nurse and politician who was the U.S. representative for from 2011 to 2017. She is a member of the Republican Party. Ellmers defeated seven-term Democratic incum ...
. Wrenn had helped Ellmers pull one of the shocking House upsets of the 2010 election, but she abandoned the veteran consultant after her swearing-in and allied herself closely with House GOP leaders. In this primary, Wrenn backed Holding (a former US Attorney he'd guided to victory in 2012 and 2014), after a court-ordered redistricting combined the constituencies of the two suburban-Raleigh members. Aided by Wrenn's management and Finkelstein's polling and advice,
Holding crushed Ellmers, 53% to 24%, and went on to a 56% re-election in November against Democrat John P. McNeil.
Other states and presidential
In Delaware, Finkelstein continued as pollster in 2000 to Senator
Bill Roth, but the 30-year lawmaker fell to a 56–44% defeat that November to
Thomas Carper
Thomas Richard Carper (born January 23, 1947) is an American politician and former military officer serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from Delaware, having held the seat si ...
.
Texas businessman
David Dewhurst
David Henry Dewhurst (born August 18, 1945) is an American politician, businessman, and attorney who served as the 41st Lieutenant Governor of Texas, serving from 2003 to 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he was the Texas Land Commissione ...
first approached Finkelstein in 1993 about running for Governor; he advised Dewhurst against challenging
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
, who stormed to victory a year later. In 1998, he shepherded the millionaire to victory for the post of state Land Commissioner, then to two successive wins in 2002 and 2006 for the job of Lieutenant Governor. In 2012, Finkelstein worked against Dewhurst in the U.S. Senate primary, polling for the campaign of former ESPN broadcaster
Craig James.
Finkelstein also served as pollster for the 2004 primary challenge by conservative Pennsylvania Congressman
Pat Toomey
Patrick Joseph Toomey Jr. (born November 17, 1961) is an American businessman and politician serving as the junior United States senator for Pennsylvania since 2011. A member of the Republican Party, he served three terms as the U.S. representat ...
against moderate incumbent Sen.
Arlen Specter
Arlen Specter (February 12, 1930 – October 14, 2012) was an American lawyer, author and politician who served as a United States Senator from Pennsylvania from 1981 to 2011. Specter was a Democrat from 1951 to 1965, then a Republican from ...
,
[''Roll Call'', April 29, 2010, "Wealthy Businessman Hires Media Recluse"] pairing with strategist Jon Lerner.
[Hagstrom, Jerry, ''National Journal'', November 4, 2010, "The GOP's Smiling Consultants"] Specter averted defeat narrowly only after massive assistance from the NRSC and Bush White House (and then switched parties after the 2008 election); Toomey was elected to Specter's seat in 2010 and 2016.
In 2005, Finkelstein polled for the gubernatorial campaign of
Doug Forrester
Douglas Robert Forrester (born January 24, 1953) is an American businessman and politician from New Jersey. He was the Republican nominee for U.S. Senator from New Jersey in 2002, and the Republican nominee for Governor of New Jersey in 2005. F ...
in New Jersey; he was defeated by
Jon Corzine
Jon Stevens Corzine ( ; born January 1, 1947) is an American financial executive and retired politician who served as a United States Senator from New Jersey from 2001 to 2006 and the 54th governor of New Jersey from 2006 to 2010. Corzine ran fo ...
.
Connie Mack IV
Cornelius Harvey McGillicuddy (born August 12, 1967), popularly known as Connie Mack IV, is an American politician and lobbyist. He is the former U.S. Representative for , serving from 2005 to 2013. A Republican, he ran for the U.S. Senate in 20 ...
's 2007 marriage to Congresswoman
Mary Bono
Mary Bono (née Whitaker and formerly Mary Bono Mack, born October 24, 1961) is an American politician, businesswoman, and lobbyist who served Palm Springs and most of central and eastern Riverside County, California, in the U.S. House of Represen ...
led to Finkelstein's aiding her sharply contested (but successful) California campaign in November 2008, defeating Democrat Julie Bornstein in Obama's triumphant year.
Bono finally lost in 2012, after her
Riverside County
Riverside County is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,418,185, making it the fourth-most populous county in California and the 10th-most populous in the Unit ...
seat was redistricted, falling to
Raul Ruiz.
Finkelstein returned to New Hampshire in 2009-10, taking on the insurgent campaign of
Bill Binnie
William Harrison "Bill" Binnie is an American industrialist, investment banker, and philanthropist, who is currently president of the Carlisle Capital Corporation,http://www.manta.com/company/mm42n0p president of the media company New Hampshire 1 ...
for the GOP Senate nomination.
Binnie was defeated by former Attorney General
Kelly Ayotte
Kelly Ann Ayotte ( ; born June 27, 1968) is an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from New Hampshire from 2011 to 2017. A member of the Republican Party, Ayotte served as New Hampshire Attorney General from ...
, who went on to election that November.
In May 2011, Finkelstein told an audience in Prague that three presidential candidates had asked him to serve as pollster on their campaign for the 2012 Republican nomination, and he had turned all three down. (He further noted that
Ron Paul
Ronald Ernest Paul (born August 20, 1935) is an American author, activist, physician and retired politician who served as the U.S. representative for Texas's 22nd congressional district from 1976 to 1977 and again from 1979 to 1985, as well ...
was not one of those three.)
Campaign style and reviews
Finkelstein was known for his hard-edged political campaigns, which often focused on a single message with great repetition. He is credited with helping to make "
liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
" a dirty word in the United States during the late 1980s and 1990s through the use of commercial messages such as this, intended to damage the image of
Jack Reed:
While often successful (as with NCPAC's attacks on seemingly moderate Democrats, or the D'Amato and Pataki campaigns in New York), Finkelstein's tactics sometimes backfired – in 1996, his repeated attacks against
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
U.S. Senator
Paul Wellstone
Paul David Wellstone (July 21, 1944 – October 25, 2002) was an American academic, author, and politician who represented Minnesota in the United States Senate from 1991 until he was killed in a plane crash near Eveleth, Minnesota, in 2002. A me ...
(calling him "Embarrassingly liberal. Decades out of touch."
) may have helped galvanize Wellstone's liberal grass-roots base. Republican Sen. Rod Grams eventually condemned Finkelstein's negative ads against Wellstone as excessive; however, his client (former Sen.
Rudy Boschwitz
Rudolph Ely Boschwitz (born November 7, 1930) is an American politician and businessman who served as a United States senator from Minnesota from 1978 until 1991. Boschwitz is a member of the Republican Party.
He was born in Berlin to a Jewish ...
) came closer that year than any GOP challenger to defeating a Democratic incumbent.
Finkelstein refused the notion he engaged in negative campaigning, a phrase he said connotes false accusations: "It just means that you speak about the failings of your opponent as opposed to the virtues of your candidate"—a strategy he called "rejectionist voting"—a formula based on slogans that disparaged adversaries.
Time magazine in October 1996 reported the Liberal-branding strategy was dubbed "Finkel-think" by leading
Bob Dole
Robert Joseph Dole (July 22, 1923 – December 5, 2021) was an American politician and attorney who represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996. He was the Republican Leader of the Senate during the final 11 years of his te ...
advisers, and the presidential nominee was (belatedly) employing it against President
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
.
Political scientist Darrell M. West, in 1996 said ". . .He uses a sledgehammer in every race ... I've detected five phrases he uses — ultraliberal, superliberal, embarrassingly liberal, foolishly liberal and unbelievably liberal."
Philip Friedman, a Manhattan consultant who got his start working for Finkelstein's frequent Democratic rival David Garth, described the pollster as "the ultimate sort of Dr. Strangelove, who believes you can largely disregard what the politicians are going to say and do, what the newspapers are going to do, and create a simple and clear and often negative message, which, repeated often enough, can bring you to victory".
Republican strategist Roger Ailes, who worked with Finkelstein on numerous races in the 1980s, described "Art" as "a polling guy with creative talents",
John Fossel, chairman of Oppenheimer Funds, characterized him as "basically sort of a mad scientist". Finkelstein polled in Fossel's unsuccessful Republican Congressional campaign in Westchester County in 1982. "We had a knock-down, drag-out over whether busing was an issue in Westchester. His polls told him it was. I said, 'I don't think it is, but if it is, it isn't to me,' and we didn't use it."
Carter Wrenn, who worked on Republican campaigns for 44 years with Finkelstein in North Carolina, called him "one of the most creative people I have ever worked with ... He is brilliant in terms of analyzing polls and numbers. He has a unique combination of an analytical and creative mind ... This guy's a workaholic. He must work 18 hours a day ... If you need him, he comes."
Tom Ellis, cofounder of the
National Congressional Club
The National Congressional Club (NCC) was a political action committee formed by Tom Ellis in 1973 and controlled by Jesse Helms, who served as a Republican Senator from North Carolina from 1973 to 2003. The NCC was originally established as the ...
said "Just knock on his head, and he'll give you an idea."
In 1990, Randall Rothenberg of ''The New York Times'' documented the rise of political and other ads intended to create controversy (in and of themselves), as well as to persuade. While Roger Ailes was credited by some as pioneering the tactic, "other Washington political hands give credit to Finkelstein, another Republican consultant, who deployed numerous news-generating commercials in his 1982 work for the
National Conservative Political Action Committee The National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC; pronounced "nick-pack"), based in Alexandria, Virginia, was a New Right political action committee in the United States that was a major contributor to the ascendancy of conservative Repu ...
."
Finkelstein's early style is described in a scholarly account of a Congressional primary race in Arizona, published in 1979 in the "Quarterly Journal of Speech".
Finkelstein gave advice to political candidates or elected officials to perform the "dance of the honest man", a metaphor for responding to "questions about transparency, honesty, or integrity" by imagining oneself as a typical, honest voter.
Britain's ''The Daily Telegraph'' credited Finkelstein with using polling data to pinpoint the division of Jerusalem as an issue over which Israelis would reject a deal with the Palestinians, during the 1996 election in Israel. The newspaper attributed Benjamin Netanyahu's victory in part to Finkelstein's "scare-mongering".
Other businesses
Finkelstein's office shared a small building with Diversified Research, a separate but related firm that executes telephone surveys and packages their results for political and business consultants (including some media pollsters).
[Associated Press, October 27, 1988, "Presidential Dead Heat in New York"] The firm, long based in
Irvington, New York
Irvington, sometimes known as Irvington-on-Hudson,Staff (ndg"The Irvington Gazette (Irvington-On-Hudson, N.Y.) 1907-1969"Library of Congress is a suburban village in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is loca ...
, had formerly been located in nearby Mount Kisco.
Finkelstein also had interests in Murphy-Powers Media Inc. (whimsically named for two young campaign-manager proteges), and Multi-Media Services (a media-buying firm helmed for years by Tony Fabrizio).
"Arthur's Kids"
Over four decades, Finkelstein was responsible for the early hiring and training of many successful Republican consultants, operatives and managers—collectively called "Arthur's Kids" or "Arthur's Boys"
—including Tony Fabrizio, Alex Castellanos, James Hartman, Craig Shirley,
George Birnbaum
George Eli Birnbaum (born 1970) is an American political consultant. He worked on the United States congressional and senatorial races. In 1998, he moved to Israel to work as a consultant to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, became his chief of ...
, Beth Myers, Mitch Bainwol, Ari Fleischer,
Carter Wrenn, Kieran Mahoney, Zenia Mucha, Jon Lerner,
Rick Reed, Patrick Hillmann,
Jim Murphy, the pollster brothers John and Jim McLaughlin, Rob Cole, and Adam Stoll.
Others who worked with Finkelstein and have gone on to have successful independent careers include Frank Luntz, Larry Weitzner, Charles R. Black Jr., Roger Stone, Chris Mottola,
John Heubusch
John Dwyer Heubusch ( ; born 1958) is an American political and private-sector executive and author, best known for his current work directing the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute in Simi Valley, California, overseeing the leg ...
, Barney Keller,
Gordon Hensley, and Gary Maloney.
Personal life
In 1996, ''Boston Magazine'' outing, outed Finkelstein as a homosexual in a feature story. In April 2005, Finkelstein acknowledged that in December 2004, he had married his partner of forty years in a civil ceremony at his home in Massachusetts.
Finkelstein was a self-identified libertarianism, libertarian conservative, and once did polling work for the Free Libertarian Party.
In his final years he increasingly distanced himself personally from social conservatism, social conservative elements within the Republican Party while nevertheless still working for many conservative candidates.
In a 1979 interview, he denied he was "a hard-core right-winger," but noted there was hardly "a serious conservative over the last 10 years [i.e. 1969-79] whom I haven't been involved with."
Finkelstein died of lung cancer on August 18, 2017, aged 72, in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Survivors included his husband, Donald Curiale, of Ipswich and Fort Lauderdale; two daughters, Jennifer Delgado of Danvers, Mass., Molly Finkelstein of Alpharetta, Ga.; two brothers; and a granddaughter Maryn Baird-Kelly.
Quotes
* "A crook always beats a fool." (frequent saying)
** VARIANT of above: "When you allow people to choose between the corrupt and the stupid, they will go for the corrupt." (Said in reference to a 2003 Israeli campaign)
* "The most overwhelming fact of politics is what people do not know." (frequent saying)
* "Stupid people say stupid things." (Hebrew language paper Maariv in 1999)
* "I have been criticized for 20 years for running ideologically arched campaigns. I plead guilty. I will continue to run ideologically arched campaigns as long as there are more conservatives than there are liberals, rather than more Democrats than there are Republicans." (Speech to Conservative Political Action Conference, 1991)
* Finkelstein insisted he never lied – "I do not slander somebody without proof."
* "In politics, it's what you perceive to be true that's true, not truth. If I tell you one thing is true, you will believe the second thing is true. A good politician will tell you a few things that are true before he will tell you a few things that are untrue, because you will then believe all the things he has said, true and untrue." (2011 speech in Prague)
* "The political center has disappeared, and the Republican Party has become the party of the Christian right more so than in any other period in modern history ... Bush's victory not only establishes the power of the American Christian Right in this candidacy, but in fact established its power to elect the next Republican president."
* "From now on, anyone who belongs to the Republican Party will automatically find himself in the same group as the opponents of abortion, and anyone who supports abortion will automatically be labeled a Democrat."
* "She will put off Democrats from the center. In terms of the Republicans, Hillary Clinton is a wonderful candidate for the presidency." (Maariv, 11/04)
* "I think I'm the playwright or the director, and not the actor. And the actors need to be onstage, not the director. And I think it's absurd that people who do what I do become as important, as celebrated, as the ones who are running."
* Speaking to GOP congressional hopefuls in 1978: "If any of you do get elected, and chances are 19-to-1 you won't ... don't run your own campaign; don't let your spouse do it; and don't listen to the nice lady who praises the brilliance of your speech—she probably was the only one in the audience who thought so." He said Proposition 13 (just passed in California) shouldn't be interpreted as "evidence people want services cut. They want taxes cut," and voters aren't sophisticated enough to understand that one leads to the other.
[Baker, Donald P., "GOP 'Pupils' Learn Humility; Workshop for Congressional Hopefuls" '']The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', June 20, 1978, C1
* He cited the 1965 New York mayoral campaign of John Lindsay, elected because "he promised to cut the budget in half and double the services. Four years later, when it was apparent that he had doubled the budget and cut services; Lindsay said, 'Yes, I made a mistake,' but he was re-elected when he promised to help end the Vietnam War."
* Said in 1979 that there are three kinds of candidates' wives—the wife "who hates politics and refuses to come out of the house," the wife who is reluctant but "will do what she is asked," and the wife "who wants to be the candidate and loves politics more than her husband does." He put Rosalynn Carter and Arlene (Mrs. Phil) Crane in the last category.
* After being praised for his winning advice in a Nassau County election: "I'm a hero, but the first time a town clerk loses an election after my figures show him winning, I will be over the hill and a bum."
* Longtime associate
George Birnbaum
George Eli Birnbaum (born 1970) is an American political consultant. He worked on the United States congressional and senatorial races. In 1998, he moved to Israel to work as a consultant to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, became his chief of ...
: "I would always say, 'Arthur, do you realize how much we're changing history?' He would say, 'I don't know how much we're changing history; we're touching history."
* In 2011, in one of his last public speeches, he said: "I wanted to change the world. I did this. I made it worse."
[Hannes Grassegger: Die Finkelstein Formel. Tages-Anzeiger#Das Magazin, Das Magazin'' Nr. 1/2, 12 Januar 2019, page 8–17]
Online
.''
References
External links
*
Romanian journalist Cristi Şuţu photo of Finkelstein* (2011 Lecture in Prague by Finkelstein)
* (News report in Hungarian concerning Finkelstein and
Viktor Orbán
Viktor Mihály Orbán (; born 31 May 1963) is a Hungarian politician who has served as prime minister of Hungary since 2010, previously holding the office from 1998 to 2002. He has presided over Fidesz since 1993, with a brief break between 20 ...
)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Finkelstein, Arthur J.
1945 births
2017 deaths
20th-century American Jews
American political consultants
American libertarians
Businesspeople from Brooklyn
Columbia University alumni
People from East New York, Brooklyn
American LGBT businesspeople
LGBT Jews
LGBT people from New York (state)
LGBT people from Massachusetts
Massachusetts Republicans
Queens College, City University of New York alumni
New York (state) Republicans
Pollsters
People from Irvington, New York
People from Levittown, New York
Deaths from lung cancer in Massachusetts
Forest Hills High School (New York) alumni
21st-century American Jews
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